“The new term deserves a new bag,” Mr. Orban posted on his Facebook page, with a picture of him entering his office in parliament with the new bag flung over his shoulder. The new bag is also a soccer-related memorabilia, sporting the official mascot—a Brazilian three-banded armadillo—of this summer’s World Cup in Brazil.

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While collecting objects of bygone eras, the Hungarian National Museum also collects objects that bear proof to the modern-day history of the country, said the museum’s chief curator, Vilmos Gal. The museum tries to acquire items that could be of interest for future generations, he added.

“This [rucksack] is an emblematic object. It symbolizes these past few years,” Mr. Gal said. Mr. Orban’s rucksack won’t be put on exhibition yet, he added.

The museum already has various articles from the leaders of the country before and since its political and economic regime shift in 1989, which is often referred to as the fall of Communism.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban with his new rucksack

Viktor Orban’s Facebook page

Items include some of the gifts Matyas Rakosi, the leader of Hungary’s Communist Party from 1945 to 1956, received for his 60th birthday. The collection also has a cover page of the Aug. 11, 1986 issue of Time Magazine, framed, which Janos Kadar, Hungary’s communist leader for 32 years, kept in his office because of an interview with him that the U.S. magazine published.

The pen that Jozsef Antall, the first Hungarian prime minister of the period since 1989, used in 1991 to sign the undoing of the Warsaw Pact, the military defense treaty of the Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites including Hungary, signed in 1995 is also among the prized objects.

The collection also includes the glass crystal plate that Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany received on behalf of the nation from U.S. President George W. Bush in 2006 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 revolution against Communist rule.

Government spokesman Ferenc Kumin confirmed that the museum received Mr. Orban’s old rucksack on Friday morning.

Comments (5 of 6)

Dear ms feher, I can't but help echo the comments of Gcxapril and contra WSJ: Real Business News - your reporting on Hungarian 'business' news is pathetic at worst, biased at best. See? What I've been pointing out for years IS ACTUALLY TRUE. You suck as a business reporter, your editor should also be sacked for missing so much important (actual) business news over the years. Shame on both of you and WSJ management for keeping you both in your jobs. Go to Népszava or Népszabadság where they'll take to your mindless commie reporting style.
Wall Street Rag? Wall Street Rot!

11:55 pm April 15, 2014

contra WSJ: Real Business News wrote:

Since this garbage WSJ does not publish economic or business news from Hungary, here are just a few brief developments the readers may be interested in:
- The cement factory in Miskolc (Magyar Cement Kft) is about to restart production by the end of the year. Miskolc is an industrial town heavily hit by the recession; the factory was shut down since 2011.
- OTP Bank is in for potential big losses due to their high exposure in the Ukraine.
- The Hungarian National Bank intends the purchase the Hungarian Payment System Board (Giro Zrt) from its current owners, a consortium of private banks.
- according to the CBRE real estate consultancy, the Budapest real estate market will likely see significant growth in the next year; reportedly the office space market should generate a 7.5% return this year.

...and I'm not even a journalist, I can still do better than the sh*&ty WSJ staff.

6:22 pm April 14, 2014

Gcxapril wrote:

Poor Margaret! It appears that she is unable to pull herself together after her friends lost the election big time. In one of her last piece she was telling us that “foreign , aka – Hungarian living abroad ‘ “ may tilt the election. Well, the result must have been quite a shock for her as this article also proves it. This article is a complete non sense. We have everything in this weird piece from the Prime Minister backpack to Matyas Rakosi’s items to Janos Kadar’s magazine. She is trying very hard to “wash “ Orban, Rakosi and Kadar together.
I am sorry Margaret, but this very pathetic. You should not try this hard. You are like your friend Olga Kalman or Henrik Havas on ATV. For your shake, I really hope you will feel better soon.
Regards,

10:24 pm April 11, 2014

Dave wrote:

Nice piece. I would love to see the FT's take on this:

Financial Times (Budapest) - Hungary's populist prime ministerial rucksack has been appointed to a shelf in the national museum in what rights groups and European leaders are calling another indication of the governments lurch into authoritarianism and away from EU democratic norms.

In a highly unusual rebuke, Rucksack Rights Watch, the international bag rights group, said that while the situation of bags in Hungary can be described as free it is certainly not fair. The inclusion of the prime ministerial rucksack was done without consulting the country's leftist opposition, the group said.

Rui Rucksack-man, leader of the back-pack party in the European parliament, said that the unilateral action by the prime ministerial rucksack ran the risk of breaching EU 'norms' and said a special monitoring committee should be established to investigate the situation.

"This is a clear risk to the European Federation of Backpacks," he told reporters. "We must take action now before we all go completely mad and no one knows what on earth we're talking about.

10:08 pm April 11, 2014

Dave wrote:

"its political and economic regime shift in 1989, which is often referred to as the fall of Communism." Never seen that turn of phrase before. Is the implication that Communism didn't fall or that there was no Communism?

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